Among country superstars, Dwight Yoakam has always been a guy who didn’t fit in. A cool, mysterious dude in a crowd of boys next door. An Appalachian-turned-Angeleno who spurned Nashville. An actor with a penchant for playing creeps, psychos, and other unsavories. And recently, Yoakam enlisted Beck to produce a few songs on his latest album, 3 Pears, his first record of new material in seven years.
“It’s an expression of the music I hear going on in my head,” Yoakam tells Kurt Andersen. “I feel free of genre boundaries.” “Trying” is Yoakam’s take on 1960s R&B; “Dim Lights, Thick Smoke” recalls the ‘cowpunk’ fusion that peaked in the ‘80s; the record even features a few piano ballads. Yoakam tells Kurt that the diversity of Los Angeles has had an important influence on country music. “There’s always been a great comingling going back to the Dust Bowl collision of cultures,” he says of Southern California. “It begat the hybrid forms of country music.”
The album’s title is a tribute to John Lennon, whom Yoakam saw in a documentary mugging for the camera in three pairs of sunglasses. (“Movie star sunglasses, he clarifies, “not the wire rims.”) It’s “about the nonsense of joy,” Dwight tells Kurt. “Joy is what the album was about for all of us who made it.”
Kurt asked Dwight Yoakam about his crossover success. His answer involves a “mosh pit pogo-sticking” punk rock kid, a somersaulting security guard, and flying beer bowls. You have to hear it to believe it.
The band in our session includes Eugene Edwards on guitar, Brian Whelan on mandolin and accordion, Jonathan Clark on bass, Mitchell Marine on drums, and Yoakam on guitar and vocals.
Bonus Track: “Nothing But Love”
Video: “A Heart Like Mine”
Honky Tonk Man
Artist: Dwight YoakamAlbum: The Very Best of Dwight YoakamLabel: Rhino/Warner BrothersPurchase: AmazonGuitars, Cadillacs
Artist: Dwight YoakamAlbum: The Very Best of Dwight YoakamLabel: Rhino/Warner BrothersPurchase: AmazonLong Way To Go
Artist: Dwight YoakamAlbum: 3 PearsLabel: Warner Bros./Via RecordsPurchase: AmazonA Heart Like Mine
Artist: Dwight YoakamAlbum: LIVE in Studio 360Readin', Rightin', Rt. 23
Artist: Dwight YoakamAlbum: Hillbilly DeluxeLabel: ReprisePurchase: Amazon3 Pears
Artist: Dwight YoakamAlbum: LIVE in Studio 360Guests:
Dwight Yoakam





Comments [8]
Dwight I think you are great.I have all your cds.Ive been a fan for a long time.So keep doing what your doing cause you are great.
Dwight I believe you are the THE best country singer today as a child I was not aloud to listen to at that time my music my old man REP BOB COMSTOCK would kick little daveies ass so I addapted to hank andbuck and all the other good ole boys. But now a day's you can't find a station that plays that good ole twanging guitar music. You know the kind that bring tears to your eyes. This last October we lost BOBBY and miss him so damm much I have tears in my eyes as I write this to you hell bobby would be kicking my ass now if he seen me cry for him. I love you dad . Dwight could some day dedicate one of your own to my POPS he loved your music also. Oh and keep making them albums just like you are but many more ok. God bless you and yours. Love you Dwight Y. Senseirly yours DAVID COMSTOCK
I became a Dwight fan when I first heard "Guitars, Cadillacs" while I was line dancing. I fell in love with that song. I wasn't a country music fan at that time and I still don't really think of myself as one. Now I'm listening to some of the more so-called traditional country music as well as what's coming out of Nashville. I'm so grateful Dwight went his own way and never compromised his talent or his vision. I recently saw him perform live and he's the consummate performer. This was an awesome interview. Thank you!
Thank you for being you, Dwight, and NOT analyzing it. Just keep doing it!
You can see a photo of John Lennon wearing three pairs of glasses on the Walls and Bridges album cover.
First exposure to Dwight was in the back seat of a 1987 Firebird with the speaker 3 inches from my ear at 16 years of age.. The intro from "Please Please Baby" came on, the twang of Pete's Tele, the thumping through my brain....I was hooked. As a fan, 26 years later, seeing countless live shows along the East Coast, one in 2006 in Dewey Beach Delaware with my then 73 year old Dad will always hold a special memory for me. Total class act, A-1 musician, and singer-songwriter. Country music isn't blessed to have Dwight Yoakam, all of music is. My 9 year old son loves his new album, begs to hear "Nothing But Love" when we're in the car. When a kid gets it, that's when you know the sound is good.
I bought my first Dwight Yoakam album around 1989, I think. I was living in Knoxville, Tennessee at the time. I love his music!
By the way, a comment/question about the pronunciation of "Appalachian." I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio in the 1950s and 60s. We pronounced it "Appa-LEY-shuh." In 1980, I moved to Hurricane, West Virginia and lived there for two years. Folks there pronounced it "Appa-LAA-cha" (like I'm throwing an apple atcha). Fast forward a few years: I lived in Knoxville, Tennesee from 1989 to 1997 and people there also pronounced it Appa-LAA-cha.
I noticed that on your show, Mr. Yoakam pronounced it the way we pronounced it in Cleveland, yet he grew up in eastern Kentucky, close to West Virginia. I was wondering which way people pronounced it where he grew up.
We're lucky to have Dwight and his band as part of what the word "American" means. I got to hear them at a concert in Atlantic City a couple of years ago, sweet harmonies both vocal and instrumental and they rock the paint off the walls. Thanks for putting them on your show!
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